SIP Newsletter September 2017

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I am writing to you now as President of the European Pain Federation, having taken over from Dr Chris Wells on the 6th September. You can be sure that the Societal Impact of Pain will remain a priority throughout my term as President.

The 7th annual Societal Impact of Pain (SIP) symposium from June 7-9 in Valletta, Malta has been an outstanding event as reported in our last edition of the SIP newsletter. We are happy to announce that the SIP 2017 Proceedings are now prepared and accessible on the SIP website here. The Proceedings provide a detailed insight of what has been presented and discussed at the SIP 2017 symposium in Malta and what have been the achievements and policy recommendations as formulated in the different sessions and working groups.

For the first time Societal Impact of Pain was integrated into the scientific program of the EFIC congress 2017 in Copenhagen which created great interest in this platform. During the congress, many EFIC councilors attended a training session about policy work. Best practices were shared on how to integrate the European SIP initiative at national level. I am confident that we have the support to take SIP to national capitals where many key decisions on access to pain treatment are taken.

Further, I want to highlight that the 1st Brain, Mind, and Pain Patient-Centred Innovation Grant is now open for applications. For 2018, the Grant theme “Overcoming problems in access to treatments” was chosen. I wish applicants good luck.

Finally, Sam Kynman (Executive Director of EFIC) explains in this newsletter what the EU Health Policy Platform is and how the Societal Impact of Pain will be integrated in this platform.

Happy reading of the SIP 2017 Proceedings!

Sincerely,

Prof. Bart Morlion | Director of the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre of the University of Leuven, Belgium
President of the European Pain Federation (EFIC)

The European Commission has launched the EU Health Policy Platform where the societal impact of pain is included as a topic for an ‘Expert Group’. We have asked Sam Kynman, Executive Director of the European Pain Federation EFIC, about the relevance of this new platform for the SIP initiative.